How to Win at Scrabble
Scrabble is a popular word/board game that has been dividing families for decades now. In theory, it is possible to play a casual, low-key rousing game of Scrabble with your family, friends, and loved ones. However, a competitive nature is something every human being experiences at one point or another.
In this article, we will show you how to embrace that competitive nature we all have somewhere deep down inside us. Our four surefire tips will teach you how you can best your friends and family at Scrabble and come out the victor.
Quick Tips
There are some quick tips that will aid you in your quest to win at Scrabble that do not really require much thought or research. One remembers the abundance of two and three-letter words. While they may not add much to your score on their own, imagine having a couple dozen of them across the board. This will boost your score, giving you a huge edge against your opponent.
Second tip to keep in mind is that you can expand on your words by adding letters at the beginning or end of it. Adding an “” to the end of a word pluralizes it. If you find yourself unsure of a move to play, this is a great way to add a couple points to your score and still keep you in the game.
Other word endings include “er,” “ed,” or “ing.” Some word beginnings are “un,” “in,” or “re.” There is an endless supply of words to do this for, so you will always have something to fall back on when things start to get tough.
By implementing these tips when it is your turn to play, you increase your chances of defeating your opponent.
Bonuses and Bingos
When you look down at the Scrabble board, you are going to see a lot of bonus spaces available. These spaces include double letter, triple letter, double word, and triple word. Your goal is to use them up before your opponent does. They boost your score. Obviously, the ones that will increase your score the most are the triple letter and triple word spaces, but if the best you can do at the time is one of the double spaces, do it!
Trust us when we say you will kick yourself if the person you are playing against gets to it before you. This is a competition people! You must play smart.
Another great thing to keep in mind are bingos. What are bingos you ask? Well, a bingo is when you use all of your titles in a turn for one word. Admittedly, this is not an easy thing to accomplish in Scrabble, but if you can manage to pull it off (especially twice in a row), there is no way you will lose.
Keeping a dictionary or memorizing some long words will help increase the chances of you getting a bingo.
All About Q
The letter Q is one of those letters that both frustrates and perplexes us. Same goes for Z and X. We can only think of a handful of words off the top of our heads. However, despite popular belief there are a small, yet decent amount of Q words available to play in Scrabble. This sounds easy on the surface but try producing a Q word that does not have the letter U right after it.
I cannot think of Q words where U does not follow. No one denies this, but this is where some extra research can benefit you in the long run. Like we mentioned, there are several Q words available to play during your Scrabble turn. However, a lot of words only start with Q. If you look in the Scrabble dictionary, there are 17 of those Q words that do not have U following it.
If you find yourself in possession of a Q and no U tile, do not panic. There are words you can spell which will help you get rid of that pesky letter. All you need to do is remember some of those Q words… or have a dictionary handy. Either will work.
Hook Those Words
The final piece of advice we have that will help you win a game of Scrabble is remembering to keep an eye out for hooks. For Scrabble, a hook is where you add a letter to a word that is already on the board. This can be done to an opponent’s word as well.
An example of this practice is as follows. Say you have the word table on the board. You could add a S to the beginning of the word which turns it into a stable. The same goes for adding a letter at the end. If you have the word, come, and add T to the end of, come, it becomes a comet. It does not matter which way you do it because both count as a hook in the game of Scrabble.
By doing this, you have managed to hook a word! The number of words you can hook truly are endless, so make sure you pay close attention to the board so you can find these hooking opportunities. They will help you grow your overall score and make it, so your opponent has no chance of catching up to you.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it all my fellow Scrabble connoisseurs (both casual and serious)! These are all of our surefire tips on how you can win a Scrabble game. Are they foolproof? Of course, not. Nothing in life is foolproof, but by using these during your turns you increase the odds of you winning.
It takes some time to not only remember them, but to also employ them correctly during the game. Practice makes perfect. Try playing a few practice rounds by yourself or going online and playing some against a computer. This will come in handy once you face a human opponent.
